Global Courant 2023-05-12 01:10:33
BOISE, Idaho — The woman charged with the murder of her two youngest children and a romantic rival wanted their money, so she used sex and power to manipulate her brother and a lover into carrying out the crimes, Idaho prosecutors said the jurors Thursday.
“Money, power and sex,” said Madison County District Attorney Rob Wood, who urged the jury to convict Lori Vallow in the death of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and the previous from her fifth husband. wife Tammy Daybell.
“What does justice require for these victims? It requires a conviction on every count,” Wood said.
Defense attorney Jim Archibald countered that there was no evidence tying his client to the murders, but there was plenty to show that she was a loving, protective mother whose life took a sharp turn when she left her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, met and fell for the ‘weird’ apocalyptic. religious claims of a cult leader.
Daybell told her they had been married in several past lives and that she was a “sexual goddess” who was supposed to help him save the world by amassing 144,000 followers so that Jesus could return, Archibald said.
“Why can’t people escape religious cult figures, why can’t they escape, why can’t they break free from that mind control?” said Archibald. “Promises are great to some people, even if they sound like stupid gibberish to the rest of us.”
Vallow and Daybell are both charged with murder, conspiracy and grand larceny in the three murders. Prosecutors say the two teamed up with Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, to carry out the crimes. Cox died in December 2019 and was never charged.
The two youngest children received Social Security survivor benefits after their fathers’ earlier deaths, and prosecutors say Vallow continued to cash those checks after the children were killed. Daybell increased Tammy Daybell’s life insurance policy, prosecutors said, and Vallow married him just two weeks after his previous wife suffocated in their home.
Both defendants have pleaded not guilty, but will be tried separately. Vallow faces life in prison if convicted. Daybell’s trial will take months.
More on the Lori Vallow case
Vallow “didn’t want to be hindered by obstacles,” Wood said, including her children.
Tylee’s body was burned beyond recognition. Her body was dismembered in such a grotesque and extreme way,” Wood said. Markings on her pelvis showed she had been stabbed, he said.
“JJ Vallow’s voice was forever silenced by a strip of duct tape over his mouth,” said Wood just two weeks later. “A white plastic bag was placed over his head and secured from his forehead to his chin with duct tape.”
There is evidence that JJ was struggling, Wood said, and at one point, the boy’s arms and legs were bound with duct tape.
“He stopped breathing, his heart stopped beating and he died. It was a brutal, gruesome murder of a 7-year-old boy with special needs,” he said.
Vallow never reported the children missing, but continued to collect the survivor benefits each child received due to their fathers’ earlier deaths, Wood said.
Wood said Tammy Daybell was killed between October 18 and October 20, 2019.
“Tammy Daybell, a loving, active mother of five and a school librarian, was murdered in her own home. She suffocated in her own home,” Wood said.
Wood also reviewed the evidence and testimony presented to jurors over the past four weeks and reminded jurors that under Idaho law, complicity, such as helping to plan a crime, is the same as a person committing it themselves .
At times, the testimony in the case was heartbreaking, like when Vallow’s adult son, Colby Ryan, accused her of murdering his siblings in a taped prison phone call.
Other testimonials were odd, like when Vallow’s former girlfriend Melanie Gibb testified that Vallow believed people in her life had been taken over by evil spirits and turned into “zombies” — including her two youngest children. Four of the people the defendant described as ‘zombies’ were later killed or shot at, according to testimony.
It was gruesome, too, like when law enforcement officers testified about finding JJ and Tylee’s remains buried in Daybell’s yard. JJ’s body was wrapped in duct tape and plastic, and Tylee’s remains were destroyed and burned with her bones showing marks of chopping or stabbing, the witnesses said. Hair from Vallow was found on a piece of duct tape used to wrap JJ, a DNA analyst testified.
Vallow’s lawyers called no witnesses and Vallow refused to testify. Instead, Archibald claimed that prosecutors failed to prove their case, suggesting that there was not enough evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that she had committed a crime.
“Out of the 15,000 texts you have as evidence, show me one where Lori is part of that conspiracy,” Archibald said concluding the arguments.
The case began in July 2019, when Vallow’s then-husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed by her brother, Alex Cox, at his suburban Phoenix home. Vallow and Charles Vallow were estranged and he had filed divorce papers claiming she believed she was a goddess sent to usher in the biblical apocalypse.
At the time, Cox told police he acted in self-defense and was never charged in connection with the death. Cox died later that year of what authorities said were natural causes. Vallow was later charged in Arizona in connection with the death of Charles Vallow; she has not yet been able to plead in that case.
According to prosecutors, Vallow was already in a relationship with Daybell, who was still married to his wife, Tammy Daybell, at the time. She moved to eastern Idaho with her brother and children to be closer to Daybell.
The children were last seen alive in September 2019. Police discovered they had gone missing a month later after a family member became concerned she couldn’t get hold of JJ. Their bodies were found the following summer.
The case has sparked a lot of interest not only in Idaho but around the world, and the judge banned cameras from the courtroom in an effort to limit pre-trial publicity. The trial was also moved to the capital Boise, where 1,800 potential jurors were called and sifted in front of an 18-person panel.
Before they can begin deliberations, six members of the panel will be excused, leaving 12 people to decide Vallow’s fate. The other six people were alternates, filling in if one of the primary jurors was unable to serve.
